Railway hopper car with separate compartments between the hoppers



Feb. 17, 1970 D. WQROLLINS RAILWAY HOPPER CAR WITH SEPARATE COMPARTMENTSBETWEEN THE HOPPERS S Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 25, 1967 INVENTOR DALLASW. ROLLINS ATTORNEY Feb. 17, 1970 D. w. ROLLINS RAILWAY HOPPER GAR WITHSEPARATE COMPAR'I'MENTS BETWEEN THE HOPPERS v 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiledOct. 25, 1967 Feb. 17, 1970 Filed Oct. 25 1967 H n. w. RoLLms RAILWAYHOPPER CAR WITH SEPARATE COMPARTMENTS BETWEEN THE HOPPERS' 3Sheets-Sheet 5' FIG. 5.

FIG. 6.

United States Patent 3 495,548 RAILWAY HOPPER C AR WITH SEPARATE COM-PARTMENTS BETWEEN THE HOPPERS Dallas W. Rollins, St. Charles, Mo.,assignor to ACE Industries, Incorporated, New York, N.Y., a corporationof New Jersey Filed Oct. 25, 1967, Ser. No. 677,923 Int. Cl. B61d 7/00,/02, 5/06 US. Cl. 105-248 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREDescription of the invention The present invention utilizes the spacebetween the lower portions of adjacent hoppers to form a separate liquidcarrying tank or compartment. Adjacent hoppers have facingslope sheetsdiverging from each other to form a space between the lower portions ofa hopper. The invention is particularly adapted for use in a hopper carhaving a stub center still at each end of the car since the stub centersills do not extend through the hoppers to obstruct the space betweenhopper slope sheets. The tank may be loaded from its side or, ifdesired, from the top of the hopper car. The tank does not interferewith the hoppers and the hoppers may be loaded and unloadedindependently of the tank. Therefore, separate ladings may be carried bythe tank.

The invention accordingly comprises the constructions hereinafterdescribed, the scope of the invention being indicated in the followingclaims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which two possible embodiments of theinvention are illustrated,

FIGURE 1 is a partial side elevation of a railway hopper car havingseparate lower tanks formed between the hoppers;

FIGURE 2 is a section taken generally along line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a partial longitudinal section of a pair of adjoininghoppers;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 3 illustrating the securingmeans for the liquid carrying tank comprising the present invention;

FIGURE 5 is a section of another embodiment of the invention in which anintegral enclosed tank is secured to the hopper slope sheets in the areabetween contiguous hoppers; and

FIGURE 6 is a longitudinal section of the embodiment illustrated inFIGURE 5.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding partsthroughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings for a better understanding of thisinvention, a railway covered hopper car generally indicated 10 isillustrated having a plurality of hoppers 12 separated by verticalpartitions 14. Hoppers 12 have bottom discharge openings and a gravitygate structure generally indicated 15 controls the flow of lading fromhoppers 12. A roof 16 has hatch covers 18 thereon to permit loading ofhoppers 12. A side sheet 20 on each side of railway car 10 has an upperside plate structure or top chord member 22 extending along the uppermarginal portion thereof for the length of car 10. Roof 16 is secured,such as by welding, to side plate structure 22. Extending along thelower marginal portion of each side sheet 20 is a side sill generallyindicated 24 extending the length of the car. An end structure generallyindicated 26 is mounted adjacent each end of car 10. End structure 26includes a stub center sill 28 terminating inwardly of adjacent hopper12 and a bolster structure 30.

Each intermediate partition 14 has a pair of hopper side slope or floorsheets 32 which extend downwardly from partition 14 in a divergingrelation to form a generally inverted V-shape. Side slope sheets 32extend transversely of car 10 and are secured, such as by welding, toside sheets 20 and side sills 24. Hopper end slope sheets 34 extenddownwardly from side sills 24 and extend between spacedadjacent hopperside slope sheets 32 to form a generally rectangular lower dischargeopening leading to gravity gate structure 15. In the conventional typeof covered hopper car, an open space or void is formed between opposedfacing side slope sheets 32 of adjoining hoppers 12.

The present invention utilizes this space by providing a separatecompartment or tank generally indicated 36 in the volume between facingside slope sheets 32. Tank 36 includes a bottom wall 38 and upturnedmarginal end wall portions 40 secured by welding to adjacent side sills24. Upturned marginal side wall portions 42 are secured by welding toleg 44 of a support angle 46 secured to side slope sheet 32. Side wallportions 42 are also secured to a portion of slope sheet 32 superjacentangle 46 as shown in FIGURE 4. An upper plate 48 extends between and issecured by welding to side sheets 20 and to side slope sheets 32. Thus,an enclosed compartment or tank 36 is formed by upper plate 48, hopperslope sheets 32, side sheets 20, lower wall 38, and wall portions 40,42. Each side sheet 20 has a suitable inlet opening 50 adjacent plate 48with a removable cap 52 thereon to permit loading of tank 36 from eitherside of railway car 10 as shown in FIGURE 2. To permit loading from roof16, a suitable vertical pipe 54 is mounted on the adjacent verticalpartition 14. Pipe 54 at its lower end extends through upper plate orwall 48 and at its upper end extends through roof 16. A suitable cap 56on the upper end of pipe 54 allows the loading of tank 36 from pipe 54.

To unload tank 36, a lower T-shaped discharge pipe 58 is in fluidcommunication with the interior of tank 36. A valve 60 may beselectively opened and closed for the discharge of lading. A cap 62 oneach end of pipe 58 may be removed when desired to connect a hose or thelike for unloading.

As an example, when utilizing a railway car 10 having three hoppers anda total capacity of forty-six hundred (4600) cubic feet, two tanks 36may be employed having a total capacity of eight hundred and fifty (850)cubic feet or around four hundred and twenty-five (425) cubic feet each.With molasses as a lading, a total of seventy-five thousand (75,000)pounds may be carried in tanks 36. Therefore, hoppers 12 may be employedfor carrying other ladings, whereas, if molasses or some other viscousliquid is carried in hoppers 12, the car must be cleaned before beingloaded with another lading. Thus, car 10 may be employed in onedirection with one lading and in a return direction with a viscouslading and without any cleaning of hoppers 12 being required.

Referring to FIGURES 5 and 6, another embodiment of this invention isillustrated in which an integral enclosed tank 64 is fabricated beforebeing secured in the area between slope sheets 32A of car 10A. Tank 64after being fabricated is placed in the area between slope sheets 32Aand welded at 66 to slope sheets 32A. Then, a connection is made to sidesills 24A including I-beams 68 and channel-shaped supports 70. I-beams68 are welded to tank 64 and extend outwardly therefrom beneath adjacentside sill 24A, and channel-shaped supports 70 are welded to I-beams 68and superjacent side sill 24A. A suitable pipe 54A may be insertedwithin a preformed opening in tank 64 to extend to a position adjacentthe bottom of tank 64. Liquid lading may be loaded by pipe 54A. Uponunloading from discharge outlet 58A, steam or the like may be dischargedfrom pipe 54A adjacent outlet 58A to heat the lading being unloaded,such as may be desirable with some highly viscous liquids, such as pitchor asphalt.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of theinvention are achieved and other advantageous results obtained.

As various changes could be made in the above construction withoutdeparting from the invention, it is intended that all matter containedin the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. A covered hopper railway car having a pair of spaced side sheetsextending the length of the car, a side sill along the lower portion ofeach side sheet extending for the length of the car, a plurality ofhoppers spaced along the length of the car, each hopper having a bottomdischarge opening positioned between the side sills, means to controlthe flow of lading from each bottom discharge opening, adjacent hoppershaving facing inclined slope sheets extending between the side sillstransversely of the car and diverging from each other thereby to form aspace between said facing slope sheets, said side sheets, side sills,and slope sheets comprising framing members for said car, a wallstructure in said space secured to at least some of said framing membersto form an enclosed compartment beneath the hoppers between said slopesheets and said side sheets for carrying lading, and a discharge outletfor said enclosed compartment to permit unloading of the lading from theenclosed compartment.

2. A covered hopper railway car as set forth in claim 1 wherein agenerally vertical inlet pipe extends within said compartment and has alower discharge end closely adjacent the bottom of said compartment.

3. A covered hopper railway car as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidside sheet adjacent the compartment has an inlet opening therein toprovide an inlet for said compartment.

4. A covered hopper railway car having a pair of spaced side sheetsextending the length of the car, a stub center sill structure adjacenteach end of the car, a side sill along the lower portion of each sidesheet extending for the length of the car, a plurality of hoppers spacedalong the length of the car each hopper having a bottom dischargeopening centrally of the width of the car, means to control the flow oflading from each bottom discharge opening, a vertical partitionseparating adjoining hoppers, said adjoining hoppers having facinginclined slope sheets extending in a direction transversely of the cardownwardly from the vertical partition separating said adjoininghoppers, said facing slope sheets being secured between the side sillsand side sheets and diverging from each other in an inverted generallyV-shape thereby to form a space between said facing slope sheets, saidside sheets, side sills, and slope sheets comprising framing members forsaid car, a lower wall in said space secured to at least some of saidframing members to form an enclosed compartment below the hoppers andbetween said slope sheets and said side sheets for carrying lading, anda lower discharge outlet connected to said lower wall to permitunloading of the lading from the enclosed compartment.

5. A covered hopper car as set forth in claim 4 wherein said lower wallhas upturned marginal portions secured to said side sills and additionalupturned marginal portions secured to said side slope sheets.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,313,361 8/1919 White -2482,108,416 2/1938 Smith 105- 358 XCR 2,758,747 8/1956 Stevens 220-63ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner H. BELTRAN, Assistant Examiner U.S.Cl. X.R.

